If you’ve ever tried to argue with someone on the Left over toxic influences in the Democratic party, they’ve probably smugly reminded you that they at least keep their crazies in check. “Come on,” the usual line runs, “at least we don’t let the Farrakhan types hold Federal office!”

Well, if this story from the Weekly Standard is any guide, that excuse is now completely broken. Meet Charles Barron, New York City Councilman, former Black Panther, anti-Israel demagogue and probable Democratic nominee to be the next Congressman from New York’s 8th district:

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How bad is Mr. Barron’s anti-Israel zealotry? Consider these lovely quotes from the Standard article:

In 2010, he told a reporter that in New York’s Crown Heights neighborhood, Jews “only make up 20 percent of the population, but they’ve always walked these streets as if they owned them, and acted as if they are the only ones in the community that matter.”[...]

Barron has also called into question the legitimate existence of Israel.

“Where should we start [the discussion]?” he said at a Brooklyn church in 2010. “Should we start with the 1906 Zionist Convention, or in 1914, with the Balfour Declaration? With Menachem Begin, the terrorists, all the wars, you want to discuss Israel becoming a state in 1948 when it should not have? Who are the terrorists? You want to talk about the definition of terrorism? How do you define acts of piracy?”

Not bad enough? Well, how about this – Barron has compared Israel’s handling of the Palestinians in Gaza to concentration camps. Yes, literally:

Israel is out of control. They’re off the hook, they’re out of line; and Barack Obama has to stand strong and so do does Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, to say that this kind of aggressive, terroristic behavior and act of piracy will not be tolerated and the blockade should be lifted immediately, immediately. There’s too many children and women and innocent men of Gaza dying because you’re isolating them and not allowing anything in. It’s like having a concentration death camp. It’s horrible, and the whole world is and should be outraged.
He's nuts.

Black nationalist Democratic councilman from New York
Onetime Black Panther who frequently inveighs against “white” influence
Apologist for Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro

Charles Barron is a black nationalist activist and Democratic (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6214)councilman from the predominantly black 42nd District in Brooklyn, New York. A onetime member of the Black Panther Party (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7375)and "Chairperson" of the radical black Unity Party, he views the United States as an irredeemably racist nation. He has characterized Black Panthers who were imprisoned for violent acts as "political prisoners (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/20/2009-12-20_wrong_man_for_big_job.html)"

In 1982, when Barron was head of the Black United Front's Harlem Chapter, he and Preston Wilcox from the Institute of African Research led more than a dozen fellow protesters in attempting to "forcibly remove" a white employee, historian Robert Morris, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where Morris worked as chief archivist. Barron and his cohorts were charged with harassment and criminal trespassing.

On December 21, 1987, Barron participated in a "day of unrest" to protest racism in New York City. For several hours the demonstrators stalled subway service and created chaos for commuters. More than 70 people were arrested for criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, including Barron and Al Sharpton (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/individualProfile.asp?indid=1527). Barron spent 45 days in jail for his conviction.

After winning his City Council seat in 2001, Barron quickly advanced a sectarian political agenda based largely on the perceived grievances of his black supporters. As one of his first official acts, Barron urged the removal of George Washington's portrait from Borough Hall in Brooklyn on the grounds that Washington was a slave-owner. Barron next denounced Thomas Jefferson, whose statue was housed in the chamber of the City Council, as a "slaveholding pedophile." On another occasion he called Jefferson “a slaveholder, a hypocrite, and a rapist.” That Barron delighted in his race-conscious demagoguery was evident from the start: "We're bringing the 'hood to the Hall!" he proclaimed (http://www.nypress.com/17/3/news&columns/feature.cfm%20) in 2002.

In June 2002 Barron introduced a resolution to the City Council, intended ultimately for the Governor of New York, calling for clemency for all prisoners "who have been persecuted unjustly for their political beliefs and activities." Among those who earned Barron's sympathies was Anthony Bottom, (aka Jalil Muntaqim), a former Black Panther convicted in the 1970s for the murder of two New York policemen. The resolution was rejected.

When the City University of New York (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6642) in 2002 increased its admissions standards (through the use of entrance exams) and announced that it would no longer offer remedial courses for borderline students, Barron interpreted the new measures as efforts to minimize the number of nonwhite students on campus. "I think racism comes behind standards,” he said.

In August 2002, while speaking before a crowd at the Millions for Reparations March in Washington, DC, Barron made the case for a Democrat-sponsored bill mandating reparations for black slavery in the following terms: "I want to go up to the closest white person and say: 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing' and then slap him, just for my mental health."

The following month, Barron again caused a public stir when -- in what he now calls one the "highlights (http://www.nypress.com/17/3/news&columns/feature.cfm%20)" of his political career -- he invited Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/individualProfile.asp?indid=2139) to deliver a speech at New York's City Hall. Mugabe is not the only dictator embraced by Barron, who has called (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0524,hentoff,64873,6.html%20) Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=912) “a true champion of human rights worldwide.”

Less charitable is Barron's assessment of his own country. "If you're looking for the Axis of Evil, look inside the belly of the beast," Barron has said of the United States. Similarly, at a 2003 anti-war rally organized by International ANSWER (http://www.conservativeunderground.com/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6147) in Washington, DC, Barron denounced U.S. capitalist interests as the real "axis of evil."

In 2005 Barron briefly campaigned for the mayoralty of New York City. "White men have too much power in this city," he said, adding (http://www.gothamgazette.com/community/42/news/2182%20) that one of his priorities was "to bust up the unbalanced white power structure." In 2006 Barron was a Democrat primary candidate for a seat in the U.S. Congress, a race he lost by 8 percentage points to rival Edolphus Towns.

On several occasions Barron has expressed dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party generally, painting it as too conservative and out of touch “with the once loyal black masses.” But because he believes the Republican Party “is not an option" for black voters, he advocates the formation of a new third party to represent black interests.

In April 2006 Barron told a television audience that America’s current "immigration problem" is at root an issue of race. He stated that Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, and Italians who immigrated to the United States during the late 1800s were welcomed because they were white, but now, "All of a sudden when the complexion of immigration changes, now it's 'these people.'"

In the aftermath of a November 25, 2006 police shooting (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232079,00.html) of a 23-year-old black man in New York City, Barron made the following statements: (a) "There's no consequences for killing a black person. I am fed up. I'm not asking my people to do anything passive anymore. We're going to sit here and we're going to go in there, and we're going to pray, we're going to march, we're going to do all of that stuff and then we're going to sit down, and if they don't respond to none of that, don't ask us to ask our people to be peaceful while they are being murdered. We're not the only ones that can bleed"; (b) "… [O]ur people [African Americans] are sick and tired of this, and don't blame me if there's an explosion in our community"; and (c) "It's still Giuliani time. The mayor [Bloomberg] will say he's sorry. He'll show up to funerals. But he doesn't change policy. Don't ask me to be peaceful when they are the ones being murderers."

In June 2009, Barron spoke at the commencement ceremony at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, a mostly black institution. He encouraged (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/20/2009-12-20_wrong_man_for_big_job.html)the African American graduates in attendance to identify themselves first and foremost as black:

"This is a great day for you, but as you rise up, remember, remember your people. Never forget who you are, and don't be afraid to be black. … I don't want you to be a lawyer who happens to be black. Be a black lawyer. I don't want you to be an elected official who happens to be black. Be a black elected official. We got a black President. We got a black governor. Say black, black, black, black, black. They don't even want us to say we're black anymore."
Also during his commencement address, Barron made a call for slavery reparations (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/20/2009-12-20_wrong_man_for_big_job.html) for blacks in the United States:

"And don't forget that America owes you reparations. They paid everybody else back. It's time for [the U.S. government] to pay you back. Give us [blacks] our reparations for 246 years of slavery. You [America] can keep your welfare. You can keep your college loans. We will have reparations. It is time for us to get paid. The Jews got paid [by Germany after the Holocaust]. The Japanese [who were interned in the U.S. during WWII] got paid."

AmPat

06-12-2012, 02:32 PM

NY just cannot refrain from electing Weiners to national office.

Gina

06-12-2012, 03:12 PM

Remember Cynthia McKinney, he's like her too. Totally nuts.

Odysseus

06-12-2012, 06:12 PM

NY just cannot refrain from electing Weiners to national office.

This guy makes Anthony Weiner look like Winston Churchill. Barron is a hateful loon who spends his life in a constant search for the next racial grievance.

Gina

06-12-2012, 06:43 PM

This guy makes Anthony Weiner look like Winston Churchill. Barron is a hateful loon who spends his life in a constant search for the next racial grievance.

Pro-Obama public workers’ unions are spending considerable resources backing a would-be United States Congressman with a long history of anti-Jewish rhetoric who supported such vile Muslim dictators as Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi. Oh – and he also declared his desire to “slap white people”.

Retread

06-12-2012, 10:01 PM

He's beyond nuts. He's Maxine Waters, without the charm. ........

Ody - that's worth 25 points of rep any day of the week. I nearly scared the wife to death laughing as loudly as I did.

NJCardFan

06-12-2012, 10:23 PM

This guy makes Anthony Weiner look like Winston Churchill. Barron is a hateful loon who spends his life in a constant search for the next racial grievance.

You know, as much of an anathema the N word is, this is the type of person that word describes.

Odysseus

06-13-2012, 01:10 PM

Ody - that's worth 25 points of rep any day of the week. I nearly scared the wife to death laughing as loudly as I did.

Please convey my apologies to her. I only mean to scare liberals. :biggrin-new:

noonwitch

06-13-2012, 02:16 PM

He makes John Conyers look like an intellectual, by comparison.

I never have understood anti-semitism in general, and specifically, the anti-semitism I have heard expressed by many african-americans. I can't speak about nation-wide jewish charity and generousity, but I can say that in Detroit, several of our charitable, medical and arts organizations are generously funded by jewish people.

Jewish Americans strongly supported the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s.

Odysseus

06-13-2012, 02:53 PM

He makes John Conyers look like an intellectual, by comparison.

I never have understood anti-semitism in general, and specifically, the anti-semitism I have heard expressed by many african-americans. I can't speak about nation-wide jewish charity and generousity, but I can say that in Detroit, several of our charitable, medical and arts organizations are generously funded by jewish people.

Jewish Americans strongly supported the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s.

Jews were the only whites willing to live in neighborhoods where blacks were starting to become a presence. As the demographics shifted, the political representation did, too. Those neighborhoods had Jewish political representatives for a long time after the blacks became majorities, and if a black candidate wanted to defeat them, then the antisemitism card was very useful.

AmPat

06-13-2012, 05:13 PM

This guy makes Anthony Weiner look like Winston Churchill. Barron is a hateful loon who spends his life in a constant search for the next racial grievance.
To be perfectly clear, I meant Weiner in an ambiguous manner. You may speculate, but I'll give you a hint; I was thinking of:
http://i46.tinypic.com/2edbh38.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/3485cg4.jpg

noonwitch

06-13-2012, 05:20 PM

Jews were the only whites willing to live in neighborhoods where blacks were starting to become a presence. As the demographics shifted, the political representation did, too. Those neighborhoods had Jewish political representatives for a long time after the blacks became majorities, and if a black candidate wanted to defeat them, then the antisemitism card was very useful.

Carl Levin got his start on the Detroit City Council.

If you are ever in Detroit, there are some really cool buildings that are now churches, but used to be temples. There is one that has stained glass windows that display jewish symbols, like the menorah. There is another that is now part of the Little Rock Historic Baptist Church campus, that has the verse about God's temple being a "house of prayer for all nations" carved in the stone at the top of the building. And there is a very modern temple in Southfield near Telegraph and I-696 that resembles Noah's Ark, or at least how it is represented in drawings.

Retread

06-13-2012, 07:37 PM

Please convey my apologies to her. I only mean to scare liberals. :biggrin-new:

Aw, she's used to it. I laugh out load often and we've been together 49 years. If she was going to be upset by it I would either have been kicked down the road or buried in the garden.